A link to a source document, “The Good Regiment” by Jack Verney, published by McGill-Queens University Press 1991, is provided in this blog (below) because the author of the Carignan Regiment history referenced this book in his research.
With appreciation to Mr. William F. Kane, who gave permission to reprint parts of the article he wrote in “Sent By The King”, a newsletter published by La société des filles du roi et soldats du Carignan, Inc. In fact, writing a blog allows freedom to expand about a subject without too much concern for the numbers of words. In the past, when I wrote about Les Filles du Roi, the focus was on the young women; but the obvious other half of the story is the men who became the husbands who the girls selected to marry. When the King of France selected the young women to go to Quebec during the 17th century, they were expected to select a husband and thereby populate New France.
Many of their husbands were members of the Carignan Regiment. Mr. Kane wrote this fascinating article about the history of this extraordinary group of men.
At the time of its departure from France, the Carignan-Salieres Regiment was the largest force ever assembled for service overseas. Neither the English, the Dutch nor the Spanish, all of whom had navies much larger than France’s, had ever even assembled such a large force to defend its colonies. It would be almost a hundred years before the British would put together a larger force to invade and conquer Canada. The logistics required in 1664 and 1665, to put this regiment together, supply it with enough equipment and keep supply lines open was a formidable task that was almost beyond comprehension at that time. That King Louis XIV was willing to take on this task, which was paid for out of the royal treasury, is monumental in itself. The 1,200 and 1,300 men who made up the regiment had to be assembled in one place for the departure to Quebec. For this task, each company had to recruit new members to fill their ranks and march their men across France from their existing posts to La Rochelle, the point of departure. All of the troops had to be billeted along the way to La Rochelle and then in that city when they arrived, a major task.
A fleet of ten ships had to be assembled to transport the troops. Because France was not a major naval power at the time, some of the fleet needed to be leased from foreign owners, and at least one of the ships used was not very seaworthy. The two best ships in the navy had already put to sea the year before to carry the Marquis de Tracy, newly appointed as lieutenant general of all of New France, to the West Indies and then on to Quebec to meet up with the troops. The cost of the supplies assembled in La Rochelle for shipment to Quebec came to a total of 218,026 livres, a fortune at that time. In spite of this, when the troops got to Canada, it was apparent that they were ill equipped to fight in the extreme conditions of the cold Canadian winters, nor did they have the proper equipment to build the forts along the Richelieu River, their first ask. Finally, in May of 1665, the first of the ships left for the arduous journey to Quebec City. Ships continued to depart from La Rochelle all summer until the last one left in September, carrying the new governor, Courcelles, and the intendant, Talon. Of the almost 1,300 men who sent out on this journey, somewhere between 300 and 500 were believed to have died in Canada before the regiment was disbanded in Quebec in 1668. Some of these died on the voyage to the New World. Estimates of 60 to 300 more died in the ill-fated winter campaign of Governor Courcelles, in January 1666. Finally, another group died of illness, Indian attacks, drownings or other accidents during the two and a half years they were in Canada. More than 400 of those left decided to remain in Canada.Only about 300 to 400 troops actually left Canada to go back to France.
In the book “The Good Regiment: The Carignan Salieres Regiment in Canada, 1665-1668”, by Jack Verney, the author points out that few of the 400 men who remained did so because they were interested in marriage and settling in the colony. Over time, however, most of the men in the regiment did marry and became habitants. Verney points to the few who married before Tracy left Canada in the fall of 1667. Only three officers were married before that time. One was the 71 year old Captain Antoine Pecaudy de Contrecoeur, who became the seigneur of the town named after him. His bride as the 15 year old Barbe Denys, (reference page 103) and their marriage lasted for 20 years and produced three children before he died at age 91. Anotehr, the 33- year old Lieutenant Rene Gaultier de Varennes, married the 12-year old Marie Boucher (reference page 104). Neither of these marriages seemed to be based on love or passion. Verney states that Marie’s father was the governor of Trois-Rivieres, who hoped to resign his position so that he could spend more time in the lucrative fur trade. A link to Verney’s book allows for a search of the content at this site here.)
As for the soldiers who married the girls sent by the king- les filles du roi- the first took place on Ootober 10, 1667, when Antoine Adhemar married Genevieve Sageot.
Interesting to note, one of the first of the marriages was to Mr. Kane’s ancestor Bernard Delpeche, who married la filles du roi Marguerite Jourdain, on November 30, 1667.
Many more men married in the following years. Only a few of the men married in 1667, because, at that time, they were not interested in becoming farmers. Instead, they chose to become coureurs de bois and to make their future in the fur trade. Some of the men traveled west and were never heard from again. Still others wre waiting until their three-year enlistments had been fulfilled in 1668 and they had not decided whether or not to return to France.
Mr. Kane has researched more than 400 members of the regiment who stayed in Canada and of those at least 300 of them married. Of those, about 160 married filles du roi. He only found 86 men who did not have marriage records and another 29 who died from various causes.
Many French-Canadians who have ancestors that populated New France are descended from the soldiers of the Carignan Regiment. Moreover, the descendents of these men are even more indebted to les filles du roi. About 770 young women came from France and married, sometimes two or three times and they gave birth to thousands of children. They truly can be called the “mothers of New France”.
Although the women were unable to give their maiden names to their progeny, reliable genealogy records will help to identify les filles with their birth names, reports Kane..
La sociétés des filles du roi and soldats du Carignan will continue to keep their names alive in genealogies and histories.
Visit the website www.fillesduroi.org for more information and learn how to become a member.